Question 1: Do you have any comments on Ofcom’s proposed Plan of Work 2023/24?

Is this response confidential?  – N

Generally, FCS again remains concerned that the Ofcom plan of work this year remains too heavily focused on residential consumers coverage and does not cover the key UK business market requirements. Appropriate Ofcom resource (an Ofcom lead/department) and focus needs to be allocated to the business market to ensure the success of this key area which will help stimulate the UKs economic recovery and ​future growth.

FCS emphasises that we would like to engage with Ofcom to ensure that the industry governance in place meets the requirements of the smaller CP and Business community.

One Touch Switch – Under fairness to customers, FCS has ongoing concerns for Business customers and suppliers in this area. While accepting that the residential customers ability to switch Voice/Broadband service providers simply is a key driver for One Touch Switch, the day one requirements need to include business GPL switching functionality (which FCS believes is minimal). Additionally, the future IP relationship with fixed and mobile will require the ability to move/switch fixed and mobile, therefore Number Porting should be incorporated in initial thinking. The business constituency needs to be fully represented in the industry governance to ensure the Business requirements are understood, captured and delivered with the design not simply being residential focussed. FCS remains concerned that the TOTSCo OTS and GPLB switching timeline is potentially too challenging. The FCS also strongly believes that Residential and Business switching processes and mechanisms need to be launched together (go-live big bang approach) as they are intrinsically linked. FCS is disappointed that to date, little Ofcom consideration has been given to the Business and small CP switching area and recommends additional focus, resource and industry engagement during the coming year. Consideration should also be given to appointing an Ofcom Programme Director to co-ordinate the Residential switching, Business switching, Number Porting and Centralised Database industry requirements. Consideration should now be given to switching between all customer services, which should in future include mobile, fixed voice, IP voice and Broadband.

Migration to voice over IP – As industry moves towards All-IP and the PSTN switch-off, FCS is concerned that the ‘product supplier – various wholesale suppliers – retailer – reseller’ model and dependencies will evolve and could potentially disadvantage our members. The resellers and smaller retailers, instead of buying products and services directly from Openreach (for example) will in future buy voice service from wholesalers who will be able to choose what functionality and for example pricing deal offers, they pass on to the small retailers/resellers. FCS believes it will benefit the industry if Ofcom monitors this issue and prevents anti-competitive agreements and potential abuse of dominant positions, especially via mergers and acquisitions (such as VM/02, BT/EE, VF/Three), ensuring that smaller retailers/resellers are not disadvantaged when compared with for example the larger retailers of vertically integrated companies.

FCS suggests that Ofcom consider a media campaign to help consumers and businesses to be more aware of the PSTN switch-off and the opportunities/benefits of moving to All-IP solutions. FCS remains concerned that the PSTN closure and move to All-IP timeline is potentially very challenging. FCS remains concerned on behalf of Business customers (and UK PLC) in remote locations, who are unable currently (and potentially this will not change on PSTN switch off), to purchase the high speed products and services they require. Customers may be forced to either pay for two connections (one for Voice and one for BB) or suffer poor service. The governments levelling up requirements will not be achievable unless there is an incentive to enable fibre connectivity to be available in remote business locations.

Mobile convergence – with some larger vertically integrated suppliers owning both mobile and fixed networks and offering converged solutions, FCS feels that there will be the potential for these large supplier retail arms to hold an advantage when compared with the medium/smaller retailers and resellers. FCS again encourages close Ofcom oversight of this area and appropriate focus on the market structures to ensure that there is equality of access and appropriate regulation going forward to ensure the market remains fairly competitive.

Number Porting, CDB – FCS believes that while there is still much to progress, the Centralised Data Base is a fundamental building block towards controlling numbers and in future ‘building trust in numbers’ (i.e. by negating spoofing). Number Porting will be required where a Voice application is moved between suppliers and the customer wishes to retain their number. FCS champions wholesale competition and for our members to have the ability to move wholesalers, change technology or potentially move portfolio. Number Porting must be viewed holistically alongside switching and the PSTN switch-off and this whole area can come under the remit of the proposed Ofcom Programme lead (proposed above). FCS also asks what is Ofcom’s view of how industry take forward the requirements recommended by NICC in this area i.e. funding for CBD?

Net neutrality – FCS has previously responded to the Ofcom consultation in this area and is happy to hold ongoing discussions with Ofcom going forward. The light touch Net Neutrality regulation framework in operation currently needs to be reviewed to consider how Net Neutrality could and should operate in the UK at infrastructure, network and service layers and in a future All-IP world. The FCS feels that currently we do not fully understand how Net Neutrality is operating as we do not have enough detailed information. Industry requires detailed and transparent reporting and metrics on both fixed and mobile to enable a fuller understanding of Net Neutrality success or areas of concern. FCS remains concerned re retail competition wrt Voice Services QoS and prioritisation. Some companies could prioritise their own retail arm services over other services they commercially provide. Ofcom should monitor potential IP infrastructure (both wired & wireless) suppliers ‘monopolies’ going forward.

Telecoms security framework – FCS continues to monitor progress in this area carefully and is generally supportive of increased/improved Telecom security and the proposed new framework. High on FCS concerns is the increased costs our larger members will incur and how responsibilities are to be apportioned. FCS believes security obligations/regulation should be targeted on infrastructure parties and for OTT services, on the supplier/provider themself (i.e. Teams would be Microsoft). FCS will continue to monitor this area closely as the proposed timeline requirements progress.

FCS is pleased that the key areas of Wireless Innovation, Spectrum demand for utilities, Climate change policy impacts, On-line services to access spectrum, Sustainability & Climate Change (Networks & services fit for the long term) are included and covered in this year’s Ofcom work plan.

Cyber security – FCS believe that the responsibility to ensure online safety should be targeted at the party that has the control and the technical ability to support the industry requirements (generally ISP network providers).